RICHMOND, Va. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. knows it would take a disastrous race at Richmond for him to miss the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

So even though he is on the bubble and knows he could end up missing NASCAR’s version of the playoffs, it’s pretty much business as usual for the Hendrick Motorsports driver.

“We're not locked in by no means,” Earnhardt said Thursday at Richmond International Raceway. “But we're in a comfortable enough position to be able to pay attention to the race we're running. … It's just a normal weekend to me.”

At seventh in the Cup standings and with a 37-point cushion on 11th place, Earnhardt can clinch a Chase spot with a finish of 32nd or better, 33rd if he leads a lap or 34th if he leads the most laps in the Federated Auto Parts 400 Saturday night.

And if he has a problem, he would still make the Chase unless four of these six drivers overtake him: Joey Logano (21 points behind him), Greg Biffle (23 points behind), Kurt Busch (28 points back), Jeff Gordon (32), Kasey Kahne (36) and Martin Truex Jr. (46).

So Earnhardt is in pretty good shape, much better than two races ago, when he had a cushion of 20 points on 11th. He finished 10th at Bristol and eighth at Atlanta to gain more breathing room heading into Richmond, where he finished 10th in the race last April.

“(I’m) fortunate enough we've had enough good runs over the last couple weeks to put ourselves in this situation, to not have to be nervous or worried,” Earnhardt said.

“It wasn't much fun over the last couple weeks having to make sure we didn't make any mistakes and give up too many points to the guys behind us.”

Earnhardt said a driver fighting to make the Chase has no choice but to keep up with other drivers battling to make the Chase.

“I think it makes perfect sense to want to know how they're doing in the race,” Earnhardt said. “As much as you try not to do that at any other point in the season, when it comes down to it, it's one or two races to go, you're all tight on the points, you got to watch those guys.

“You're curious as to where they're at. That's not much fun.”

Earnhardt hopes to have fun Saturday night but will make sure he doesn’t create any problems for himself and will be cognizant of the drivers around him. He will be aware there could be drivers looking for payback for incidents earlier this year.

“If you want to get run over, you can make a few wrong turns and tick some people off, get yourself put in the fence real quick,” Earnhardt said. “There are guys in there that aren't going to make the Chase, aren't too happy about their situation, going to have some pretty short fuses out there.

“You don't want to rough up anybody. You want to take your time getting around some of these guys.”